Kwiple logo

Recent kwiples

Saturday 10th of June 2023

Kwiple.com Available without prescription™ © 2015 Kwiple.com
Academic achievement In 2019, the typical student in the poorest 10 percent of districts scored one and a half years behind the national average for his or her year — and almost four years behind students in the richest 10 percent of districts – in both math and reading. By 2022, the typical student in the poorest districts had lost three-quarters of a year in math, more than double the decline of students in the richest districts. The declines in reading scores were half as large as in math and were similarly much larger in poor districts than rich districts. The pandemic left students in low-income and predominantly minority communities even further behind their peers in richer, whiter districts than they were. Tom Kane and Sean Reardon, NYT, 2022/05/11 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Activism If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with.  Ronald Reagan, on ending student protests at University of California, Berkeley © 2023 Kwiple.com
Artificial intelligence I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. And we want to be vocal about that. We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening. Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the creator of DALL-E 2 nd Chat GPT-4 © 2023 Kwiple.com
The Big Lie On February 7, 2019, … Giuliani told  Ms. Dunphy, in her capacity as his employee, about a plan that had been prepared for if Trump lost the 2020 election. Specifically, Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that Trump's team would claim that there was “voter fraud” and that Trump had actually won the election. This plan was discussed at several business meetings with Giuliani and Lev Parnas. From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy, his former Business Development director [February 7, 2019, was 635 days before the 2020 election held on November 3, 2020] © 2023 Kwiple.com
Facts  Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Daniel Patrick Moynihan © 2023 Kwiple.com
Foreign relations Today, hopes of a co-operative global economic order, which reached their zenith at the G20’s London summit of April 2009, have evaporated. Yet it is hardly a case of “Goodbye G20, hello G7”. The earlier world of G7 domination is even  more remote than that of G20 co-operation. Neither global co-operation nor western domination look feasible. What might follow? Alas, “division” might be one answer and “anarchy” another. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 23, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Freedom Across the country, we are seeing sharp new limits on the rights and privileges of Americans. And despite a national mythology that ties the threat of tyranny to the machinations of a distant, central government, the actual threat to American freedom is coming from the states. … The plan … is to shrink and degrade the very notion of national citizenship and to leave us, once again, at the total mercy of the states. It is to place fundamental questions of political freedom and bodily autonomy into the hands of of our local bullies and petty tyrants, whose whims they call “freedom,” whose urge to dominate they call “liberty.” Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, May 2, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Freedom Freedom is not about having unshackled hands.  Freedom is about having unshackled minds. Volodymyr Zelensky © 2023 Kwiple.com
Freedom There are, I think, four freedoms we can glean from the Republican program. There is the freedom to control — to restrict the bodily autonomy of women and repress the existence of anyone who does not conform to traditional gender roles. There is the freedom to exploit — to allow the owners of business and capital to weaken labor and take advantage of workers as they see fit. There is the freedom to censor — to suppress ideas that challenge and threaten the ideologies of the ruling class. There is the freedom to menace — to carry weapons wherever you please, to brandish them in public, to turn the right of self-defense into a right to threaten other people. Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, May 19, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Governance No one is innocent after the experience of governing. But not everyone is guilty. Daniel Patrick Moynihan © 2023 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Count votes in Congress by: 1. Calculating a Member's Proportional Vote (MPV) for each member, as follows: MPV = SPNP / NLRS where: SPNP = State's Percentage of the National Population NLRS = Number of Legislators Representing the State (in that legislature) 2. Totaling “yes” MPVs and “no” MPVs 3. Passing if total MPV is more than 50 OTHERWISE Abolish the Senate © 2019 Kwiple.com
Libertarians American libertarians should rarely be taken at face value. They generally share two characteristics. The first is that they are rich. It is as rare to find an impoverished libertarian as it is to find a wealthy socialist. The second reason is that their libertarianism rarely stretches beyond their personal freedoms, especially the liberty not to be taxed. Other people's freedom is their own lookout. Edward Luce, Financial Times, May 26, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Markets One has to remember three big things about the market economy. The first and most fundamental is that one must not do everything that is profitable. Indeed, there has to be a lengthy list of activities one is not entitled to do. The second is that some of the things one must not do might be legal or, if contrary to law, hard to prevent. The last and most important therefore is that the survival of a civilised society depends on moral restraint, particularly from its leading figures. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 2, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Military spending If the average profitability that was negotiated in a firm fixed-price contract was typically between 12 and 15 percent, so a company could make 12 percent. … Based on what they [Lockheed Martin and Boeing] actually made [on the Patriot weapons system], we would have received an entire year's worth of missiles for free. Shay D. Assad, former Director, Defense Pricing/Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy [A formal review by the Army revealed that total profits made by Lockheed and Boeing approached 40 percent] © 2023 Kwiple.com
Pardons and commutations He [Giuliani] also asked Ms. Dunphy if she knew anyone in need of a pardon, telling her that he was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split. He told Ms. Dunphy that she could refer individuals seeking pardons to him, so long as they did not go through “the normal channels” of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, because correspondence going to that office would be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy, his former Business Development director © 2023 Kwiple.com
Populism The best definition of populist government, I think, is passing laws you know won’t work, to solve a problem that you don't really think exists, because it polls well. Stephen Bush, Financial Times, April 1, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Post-2022 Senate shituation 15 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) 2020 population: 40,737,128 Senators: 30 Republicans 1 Senator per 1,357,904 people — 1 state (California) 2022 population: 39,995,077 Senators: 2 Democrats 1 Senator per 19,997,539 people 19,997,539 / 1,357,904 = 14.7, therefore: average 15er's vote is worth nearly 15 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth less than 7% of an average 15er's — 1 state (Wyoming) 2022 population = 579,495, therefore: 1 Senator per 289,748 Wyomians, a Wyomian's vote is worth 69 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth 1.4% of a Wyomian's  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Public discourse  This is what the sociologist Howard Becker calls the “hierarchy of credibility”: Those at the top of the social hierarchy don't have to prove their claims; they're just taken for granted. But claims made by those on the bottom are burdened by skepticism and demands for proof. Eleni Schirmer and Louise Seamster, New York Times, May 26, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Sexual harassment Giuliani often demanded that she work naked, in a bikini, or in short shorts with an American flag on them that he bought for her. When they were apart, they would often work remotely via videoconference, and during those conferences Giuliani almost always asked her to remove her clothes on camera. He often called from his bed, where he was visibly touching himself under a white sheet. From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy, former Business Development director for him and his companies © 2023 Kwiple.com
Sexual harassment Giuliani said that he did not have a Human Resoures department and bragged that no one would ever sue him because he was connected to President Trump, and he had private investigators  who would punish anyone who complained. From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy, his former Business Development director,  who asked for the name of the Human Resources director after he pressured her into performing oral sex on him © 2023 Kwiple.com
Sexual harassment Throughout the employment and attorney- client relationship, Giuliani forced Ms. Dunphy to perform oral sex on him. He often demanded oral sex while he took phone calls on speaker phone from high-profile friends and clients, including then-President Trump. Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that he enjoyed engaging in this conduct while on the telephone because it made him “feel like Bill Clinton.” From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy, former Business Development director for him and his companies © 2023 Kwiple.com
Snapshot He drank morning, noon, and night, and was frequently intoxicated, and therefore, his behavior was always unpredictable. Giuliani also took Viagra constantly. Rudy Giuliani portrayed by Noelle Dunphy, former Business Development director for him and his companies © 2023 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court  If you look at other western legal systems, there is no parallel to the bind  in which America finds itself. The closest analogy to a Supreme Court whose majority follow originalism — fidelity to the alleged wishes of long-deceased men — sits in Tehran. Iran's Council of Guardians is unelected, regulates women’s bodies, cannot be re- moved and is impervious to public opinion. They answer to a higher power. The more America's Supreme Court resembles a theocratic body, the more it imperils itself. Edward Luce, Financial Times, May 3, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say Cain commented to God, “Am I my brother's keeper?” The obvious answer is no. No, I am not my brother's keeper. But just don't kill him. Jeanette Ward, a Christian nationalist member of the Wyoming House of Rrpresentatives © 2023 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say It’s time to reaffirm in law what exists in our Constitution  and in the hearts of our fellow Americans. We must abolish the legal duty of retreat everywhere. Matt Gaetz, proposing a nationwide stand-your-ground law © 2023 Kwiple.com
Ukraine In May 2019 Ms. Dunphy continued working in her role as Director of Business Development and as Giuliani's executive assistant, monitoring his email and social media. During that time, Giuliani discussed with Ms. Dunphy his work to try to have Ambassador [Marie] Yovanovitch removed from her position at the request of a foreign oligarch. From the verified complaint against Rudy Giuliani filed by Noelle Dunphy © 2023 Kwiple.com
 
Ukraine Ivan the Terrible. Peter the Great. And Catherine the Great. Sergei Lavrov's response, when asked on the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, who was advising Putin [Russia's great expansionists/imperialists] © 2023 Kwiple.com